WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:05.000 Have you shaken that spring cold yet? 00:05.000 --> 00:09.000 Wondering if you'll get a new Easter bonnet this year? 00:09.000 --> 00:11.000 I want to get away from it all. 00:11.000 --> 00:14.000 We offer you escape. 00:22.000 --> 00:26.000 You are aboard a Chinese junk on the ground off the coast of Borneo. 00:26.000 --> 00:31.000 And paddling toward you are the canoes of the deadly diak headhunters. 00:31.000 --> 00:34.000 Your powder is wet and your throat is dry. 00:34.000 --> 00:38.000 Because for you, there is no escape. 00:47.000 --> 00:50.000 Escape, produced and directed by William N. Robeson, 00:50.000 --> 00:53.000 and designed to free you from the four walls of today 00:53.000 --> 00:56.000 for a half hour of high adventure. 01:00.000 --> 01:04.000 Tonight we escape to the Orient of 150 years ago, 01:04.000 --> 01:07.000 to the Manila of 1790, 01:07.000 --> 01:12.000 in Richard Matthews Hallett's story of a wooden ship and an iron man, 01:12.000 --> 01:15.000 Miss Fortune's Isle. 01:15.000 --> 01:18.000 The water which was lying at anchor so close up against the jetty, 01:18.000 --> 01:22.000 I could have leaned over and spit on the wheels of the elegant Spanish carriages 01:22.000 --> 01:25.000 clattering along the promenade. 01:25.000 --> 01:28.000 And that's exactly what I felt like doing. 01:28.000 --> 01:31.000 I've been away from Salem for three years now. 01:31.000 --> 01:35.000 Three years of sailing a trader brig through the China seas 01:35.000 --> 01:38.000 and south into the Spice Islands. 01:38.000 --> 01:42.980 I've been in the 01:42.980 --> 01:47.000 Spice Islands all for one. 01:47.000 --> 01:50.000 The whole thing had grown stale suddenly. 01:50.000 --> 01:53.000 I was plainly and simply bored. 01:55.000 --> 01:58.000 A young poet stood beside me there at the taff rail 01:58.000 --> 02:01.000 and tried to console me with philosophy. 02:01.000 --> 02:04.000 He'd anchored his sailing junk alongside earlier in the day 02:04.000 --> 02:07.000 and come aboard to renew a friendship that started 02:07.000 --> 02:09.000 two years before a tin scene, 02:09.000 --> 02:13.000 when I hauled him out from under an executioner's axe. 02:13.000 --> 02:16.000 He was under it because he just sold me six fine fat pigs 02:16.000 --> 02:21.000 without remembering they happened to be the sacred property of the Tianxing temple. 02:21.000 --> 02:25.000 Oh, Yang Po was a real philosopher, all right. 02:25.000 --> 02:29.000 Anyway, my friend, I reserve my sympathies for the poor. 02:29.000 --> 02:31.000 You have gained much wealth and trade. 02:31.000 --> 02:33.000 Aye, and a few measly gold pieces. 02:33.000 --> 02:36.000 But the trouble is out here, a man can't go it on his own. 02:36.000 --> 02:37.000 He needs backing. 02:37.000 --> 02:39.000 What more backing could a rash man desire 02:39.000 --> 02:42.000 than those eight brass cannons at the rail? 02:42.000 --> 02:44.000 Aye, they're fair guns, all right. 02:44.000 --> 02:46.000 But it's a flag I'm speaking of. 02:46.000 --> 02:49.000 Do these unworthy eyes not see a pinup there at the masthead? 02:49.000 --> 02:52.000 The funding of Salem swings no weight out here. 02:52.000 --> 02:55.000 In the south, it's the Dutch who call the turn. 02:55.000 --> 02:58.000 On the coast, the British, and here in Manila, it's the Spanish. 02:58.000 --> 03:00.000 Ah, man has... 03:00.000 --> 03:04.000 Yang Po, there she comes now in the second carriage there. 03:04.000 --> 03:07.000 That's the fourth time since high noon she's come back. 03:07.000 --> 03:10.000 Ah, four fine horses and two footmen. 03:10.000 --> 03:12.000 She rides in style. 03:12.000 --> 03:14.000 Watch, watch. She'll look up at the ship. 03:14.000 --> 03:16.000 She has every time today. 03:16.000 --> 03:18.000 Ah, there you see. 03:18.000 --> 03:21.000 Ah, that one. The little caged bird. 03:21.000 --> 03:22.000 You know her? 03:22.000 --> 03:23.000 I know of her. 03:23.000 --> 03:26.000 She is wife of Don Narciso Crispo, the Spanish nobleman 03:26.000 --> 03:30.000 who is captain general of the island south of Zamboanga. 03:30.000 --> 03:32.000 He is in residence here in Manila. 03:32.000 --> 03:35.000 Ah, she looks very sad. 03:35.000 --> 03:38.000 Ah, why she called the little caged bird? 03:38.000 --> 03:41.000 One glimpse of Don Narciso would answer your question better than 03:41.000 --> 03:43.000 a thousand words. 03:43.000 --> 03:45.000 Ah, she's very beautiful too. 03:45.000 --> 03:48.000 I'll swear she looked back and smiled just then. 03:48.000 --> 03:50.000 Captain, all right. 03:50.000 --> 03:54.000 Once in pity, I set free a parakeet which I had found caught in a net. 03:54.000 --> 03:57.000 I still bear scar from its beak. 03:57.000 --> 04:00.000 Some things may be worth taking chances for. 04:00.000 --> 04:06.000 Ah, me, I find it so much simpler to go to sleep and dream of maidens on the moon. 04:06.000 --> 04:08.000 Ah, but the moon's too far away. 04:08.000 --> 04:09.000 Hey, man, where are you? 04:09.000 --> 04:12.000 Ah, up here, Michael, on the quarter deck. 04:12.000 --> 04:15.000 Then the honorable redheaded one is still your first mate? 04:15.000 --> 04:16.000 Aye, that he is. 04:16.000 --> 04:18.000 What's the matter, Michael? 04:18.000 --> 04:19.000 Matter indeed. 04:19.000 --> 04:22.000 Haven't you heard all the excitement in town? I've been looking... 04:22.000 --> 04:25.000 Ah, young fool, haven't they hung you yet? 04:25.000 --> 04:29.000 This unworthy one is touched by your concern, Mr. O'King. 04:29.000 --> 04:31.000 What do you mean by excitement? I've been on board all day. 04:31.000 --> 04:35.000 I know. Last night, with all their soldiers on guard and the stone ramparts and all, 04:35.000 --> 04:38.000 a band of pirates slipped the shore down close and got through into the city. 04:38.000 --> 04:39.000 Pirates? 04:39.000 --> 04:41.000 Aye, Tim Falson Busholtz of a misfortune. 04:41.000 --> 04:43.000 They may possibly think it was me. 04:43.000 --> 04:45.000 Oh, they have no clue as to who it was. 04:45.000 --> 04:46.000 Got away scot-free, they did. 04:46.000 --> 04:49.000 And they almost abducted the Captain General of Zamboango and Sepp. 04:49.000 --> 04:50.000 What? 04:50.000 --> 04:51.000 Aye, aye. 04:51.000 --> 04:54.000 An important grandee by the name of Don Narcisco something or other. 04:54.000 --> 04:56.000 His guard finally heard them. 04:56.000 --> 04:59.000 Ah, pity. Fortunate I'm not with you, Captain Harat. 04:59.000 --> 05:02.000 Ah, but here's the part that'll stop you. 05:02.000 --> 05:07.000 There is no one in Manila that knows who they were, except yours truly, Michael O'King. 05:07.000 --> 05:08.000 Go on. 05:08.000 --> 05:10.000 Eh? Here, have a look at that. 05:10.000 --> 05:13.000 Oh, quite the Manchester Cutler. 05:13.000 --> 05:16.000 Aye, and there's a mark on the handle. 05:16.000 --> 05:19.000 Hey, it's the one we traded to Serif. 05:19.000 --> 05:21.000 Aye, aye, the bandit king of North Bonio. 05:21.000 --> 05:25.000 And it was me found this morning on the beach where the pirate boat came ashore. 05:25.000 --> 05:26.000 You found it? 05:26.000 --> 05:28.000 No, no, no, not quite. 05:28.000 --> 05:30.000 A melee by the name of Jambu brought it to me. 05:30.000 --> 05:34.000 Oh, Jambu. Ten thousand pampans filled with spoiled fish. 05:34.000 --> 05:35.000 You know the fellow? 05:35.000 --> 05:37.000 I have used him as interpreter. 05:37.000 --> 05:39.000 He speak Dayak. 05:39.000 --> 05:44.000 But in some former incarnation he undoubtedly was ill. 05:44.000 --> 05:50.000 Hmm. You know, I think this may be exactly what I need. 05:50.000 --> 05:52.000 Need? For what, I read? 05:52.000 --> 05:54.000 To make fortunes for the three of us. 05:54.000 --> 05:57.000 I suddenly remember an unexpected appointment. 05:57.000 --> 05:59.000 Aye, aye, young pal. 05:59.000 --> 06:01.000 It's a plan that won't work without you. 06:01.000 --> 06:04.000 I'm not talking a bare profit. This means a fortune. 06:04.000 --> 06:06.000 I am amazed. 06:06.000 --> 06:11.000 There is much talk of money and yet very little talk of Spanish lady. 06:11.000 --> 06:15.000 I heard rumors on shore about these Spanish clashes. 06:15.000 --> 06:17.000 For one thing, they wear no stockings. 06:17.000 --> 06:21.000 Eh? And how's the man to know it, Michael? 06:21.000 --> 06:23.000 You can't count too much on his thing. 06:23.000 --> 06:25.000 Well, now it was a Spaniard that told me. 06:25.000 --> 06:28.000 All right, now listen, lad. Let me tell you the plan. 06:28.000 --> 06:32.000 And if we're all agreed, I'll go ashore and talk to this Don Narciso. 06:32.000 --> 06:37.000 After I have heard it, I think I shall go and sacrifice White Rooster to Queen of Heaven. 06:37.000 --> 06:39.000 Though I doubt it will do a great deal of good. 06:39.000 --> 06:44.000 The only thing I can't understand is why this Jambu didn't take the cutlass to Don Narciso in the first place. 06:44.000 --> 06:48.000 It is quite possible he did take it there in first place, Captain Harad. 06:48.000 --> 06:51.000 It is point worth consideration. 06:51.000 --> 06:57.000 It took a bit of talking right enough, but finally the others agreed to the plan. 06:57.000 --> 07:04.000 And no more than two hours later, I was talking to the Captain General of Zamboango himself. 07:04.000 --> 07:07.000 He turned out to be a little monkey of a man. 07:07.000 --> 07:11.000 Yellow as a faded sunflower and much older than I expected to find. 07:11.000 --> 07:17.000 I am quite well satisfied regarding your identification of those who perpetrate the outrage, Captain Harad. 07:17.000 --> 07:21.000 But, uh, maledictions and fatalities. 07:21.000 --> 07:24.000 I have also heard the stories of this pirate, Salif. 07:24.000 --> 07:29.000 I think a broadside of my thirty-two ponders can furnish him enough fatalities, excellently. 07:29.000 --> 07:31.000 It's not that simple. 07:31.000 --> 07:36.000 The safe quarters on the Borneo coast is nothing less than a fortress. 07:36.000 --> 07:39.000 Ah, it's only a bamboo stockade lying at the mouth of the river. 07:39.000 --> 07:41.000 And it's in range of the guns on my break. 07:41.000 --> 07:43.000 My friend, Yung Po, has been there. 07:43.000 --> 07:48.000 But hard against the mouth of the river is the Plucha Laca. 07:48.000 --> 07:50.000 Hmm, misfortune's aisle, huh? 07:50.000 --> 07:51.000 Aye. 07:51.000 --> 07:56.000 And on it, limestone caves filled with bird's nests worth fifty dollars a pound in Canton. 07:56.000 --> 08:01.000 That may well be, Captain Harad, but there is also the yu pas tree. 08:01.000 --> 08:03.000 You must have heard of it. 08:03.000 --> 08:06.000 Aye, but I count a little on his saying, excellency. 08:06.000 --> 08:08.000 It is not his say. 08:08.000 --> 08:13.000 The dyak headhunters poisoned the spills and arse with its juices. 08:13.000 --> 08:18.000 I have seen main scratch by them die like that. 08:18.000 --> 08:20.000 Some things are worth taking chances for. 08:20.000 --> 08:23.000 I must say that I quite agree with you, D'Artisto. 08:23.000 --> 08:25.000 Confina, eh? 08:25.000 --> 08:29.000 Captain Harad, may I present my wife, Dona D'Artisto de Crespo. 08:29.000 --> 08:31.000 Captain Harad, my mother. 08:31.000 --> 08:33.000 D'Artisto, I've heard it all. 08:33.000 --> 08:35.000 You must agree to this expedition. 08:35.000 --> 08:37.000 You know the king's offer? 08:37.000 --> 08:42.000 Any man who risks the violence of pirates to be made a convoy with lands and titles. 08:42.000 --> 08:45.000 Have both lands and titles, my dear. 08:45.000 --> 08:49.000 What is it you expect from this, Captain Harad? 08:49.000 --> 08:51.000 A fortune, excellency. 08:51.000 --> 08:52.000 Huh? 08:52.000 --> 08:55.000 The bird's nest themselves should be worth a half million Yankee dollars. 08:55.000 --> 08:57.000 And there's gold and antimony in the river. 08:57.000 --> 08:59.000 And trade with the dyaks. 08:59.000 --> 09:03.000 Precisely what is the plan of yours? 09:03.000 --> 09:07.000 Well, fifty of Seraph's men are Chinese who once served Yang Po. 09:07.000 --> 09:10.000 They'll come in with us if he can get word to them. 09:10.000 --> 09:11.000 That'll make things easier. 09:11.000 --> 09:14.000 And how do you expect to get word to them? 09:14.000 --> 09:17.000 Yang Po and I'll sail in ahead of his junk and try to contact them. 09:17.000 --> 09:21.000 My mate will bring up the water witch 24 hours later and then we'll attack. 09:21.000 --> 09:25.000 And exactly why have you come to me? 09:25.000 --> 09:31.000 Were I to do it without official support, I'd be judged a pirate myself, wouldn't I? 09:31.000 --> 09:35.000 I don't know. It would be a great thing if it could be done. 09:35.000 --> 09:36.000 Nargiso. 09:36.000 --> 09:37.000 Yes? 09:37.000 --> 09:41.000 Why not think of it tonight and decide in the morning? 09:41.000 --> 09:43.000 That may be a wise suggestion. 09:43.000 --> 09:46.000 May I allow me to show you out, Captain Harad? 09:46.000 --> 09:47.000 By your leave, excellency. 09:47.000 --> 09:50.000 Ah, see you tomorrow then. Good day, Captain. 09:50.000 --> 09:54.000 This way, please. 09:54.000 --> 09:57.000 He will agree. You may depend on him. 09:57.000 --> 10:01.000 Good. I hope also that his excellency will accompany us personally. 10:01.000 --> 10:04.000 Well, you can be certain of it. 10:04.000 --> 10:06.000 You seem quite sure of that. 10:06.000 --> 10:10.000 Who do you think it was who had the cordless send to you? 10:10.000 --> 10:11.000 You? 10:11.000 --> 10:17.000 Here is the door, Captain. I will say, adiosito now. 10:17.000 --> 10:22.000 In our language it means goodbye for a little while. 10:22.000 --> 10:25.000 For a little while, huh? 10:25.000 --> 10:29.000 Well, in that case, adiosito. 10:37.000 --> 10:41.000 Delfino was right. The next morning he agreed to it. 10:41.000 --> 10:45.000 And two days later we sailed out of Manila harbor. 10:45.000 --> 10:48.000 Don Nargiso accompanied me on Yanko's Janken. 10:48.000 --> 10:52.000 Michael O'Kane followed at the helm of the water witch. 10:52.000 --> 10:55.000 Our luck deserted us as we rounded the corregidor 10:55.000 --> 10:59.000 and sailed square into the tail end of a typhoon. 10:59.000 --> 11:02.000 There was little wind, but a heavy sea was running 11:02.000 --> 11:05.000 and it took us on the pork bough for all that night and the next day. 11:05.000 --> 11:07.000 We lost sight of the water witch. 11:07.000 --> 11:10.000 And the leaky old junk pitched and rolled like a dory. 11:10.000 --> 11:15.000 Yanko stayed mostly below in his bunk and dreamed peacefully of the maidens on the moon. 11:15.000 --> 11:18.000 While I stayed on deck and skippered her through it. 11:18.000 --> 11:23.000 It was late the second night before I had a chance to go down to my cabin. 11:23.000 --> 11:25.000 Buenas noches, Capitan. 11:25.000 --> 11:28.000 Delfino! What in the name of the devil are you doing aboard? 11:28.000 --> 11:30.000 Being tossed about mostly. 11:30.000 --> 11:33.000 It is a very unstable ship you have, Capitan. 11:33.000 --> 11:37.000 There should be a lot more unsteady when a hundred diak head hunters start trying to board it. 11:37.000 --> 11:38.000 How did you arrive here? 11:38.000 --> 11:42.000 In a sack of feathers. It's really all that saved me during the storm, you know. 11:42.000 --> 11:45.000 Oh, confounder, don't you realize your husband is on board? 11:45.000 --> 11:47.000 Sleeping in the deck cabin. 11:47.000 --> 11:49.000 Suppose he should come down here for something. 11:49.000 --> 11:51.000 He did once. I hear in the wardrobe. 11:51.000 --> 11:53.000 Oh, all the fool tricks. 11:53.000 --> 11:58.000 But you did say orincito? For a little while. 11:58.000 --> 12:00.000 Yes, but it wasn't an invitation. 12:00.000 --> 12:02.000 Who could tell? 12:02.000 --> 12:05.000 Anyway, I shall prove quite valuable to you. 12:05.000 --> 12:06.000 I doubt it. 12:06.000 --> 12:07.000 You will see. 12:07.000 --> 12:10.000 Narciso will become frightened at the last moment. He always does. 12:10.000 --> 12:12.000 And what will you do? 12:12.000 --> 12:14.000 Whatever is required at the time. 12:14.000 --> 12:18.000 I am not afraid of fighting, my Capitan. I have seen it before. 12:18.000 --> 12:21.000 Oh, confounder, if we had a fortune in our reach, and now you come along and ruin it. 12:21.000 --> 12:22.000 You underestimate me. 12:22.000 --> 12:24.000 Well, I won't do that again. 12:24.000 --> 12:25.000 You are very rude. 12:25.000 --> 12:27.000 I meant to be. 12:29.000 --> 12:31.000 Why did you marry him? 12:31.000 --> 12:38.000 I had no choice. My father was ambitious. Narciso was influential. 12:38.000 --> 12:40.000 And did your father realize his ambition? 12:40.000 --> 12:46.000 He became a colonel and first killed the son of the act of the chile. 12:46.000 --> 12:53.000 Oh, I'm sorry. And now if you'll remove yourself from my bunk, I need some sleep. 12:53.000 --> 13:00.000 If you are going to move in here, then what am I going to do? 13:00.000 --> 13:04.000 Oh, you'll think of something. You made all your own plans so far. 13:04.000 --> 13:07.000 Oh, thank you. 13:07.000 --> 13:11.000 But if my husband sees me, then he may think you brought me on board. 13:11.000 --> 13:16.000 Well, in that case, I shall be forced to kill him in a duel. Good night. 13:16.000 --> 13:20.000 You... you are going to sleep? 13:20.000 --> 13:22.000 I hope to. 13:22.000 --> 13:27.000 Try the Shrine of the Queen of Heaven. It's the last cabin in the stern. 13:27.000 --> 13:31.000 No one goes there but young foe, and you'll have to be told about you anyway. 13:31.000 --> 13:33.000 Good night. 13:33.000 --> 13:39.000 Even when you are rude to me, you're mad. 13:39.000 --> 13:42.000 You're so very sweet. 13:42.000 --> 13:44.000 Good night. 13:49.000 --> 13:53.000 Well, woman or no woman aboard, it was too late to turn back now. 13:53.000 --> 13:57.000 And so two days later we dropped anchor at the mouth of Serif's River. 13:57.000 --> 14:01.000 Off the port rail a quarter mile away lay the pirate stockade. 14:01.000 --> 14:05.000 It was backed up by the dark green mass of jungle. 14:05.000 --> 14:08.000 And on the opposite side of the junk, across a hundred yards or so of water, 14:08.000 --> 14:15.000 was the beach of Miss Fortune's Isle, sloping back to break sharply on the foot of the limestone cliffs. 14:15.000 --> 14:21.000 On the upper shoulders of those cliffs were the caves without fortune and edible bird's nests. 14:21.000 --> 14:31.000 And between the cliffs and the water stood the Eupus Tree. 14:31.000 --> 14:37.000 A hundred legends were told about the Eupus Tree, how its shadow could kill a man, 14:37.000 --> 14:42.000 how the spirit of a white goddess was prisoned in the thick, dark foliage of its top, 14:42.000 --> 14:47.000 and how birds that lighted on its branches fell dead to the ground. 14:47.000 --> 14:54.000 But one thing at least was true enough, the dikes made a horrible poison from the juice of its bark, 14:54.000 --> 15:02.000 and they worshiped the tree. 15:02.000 --> 15:06.000 Yang Po took the renegade interpreter, Jambu, with him, 15:06.000 --> 15:09.000 and went ashore to pay his respects to Serif, 15:09.000 --> 15:14.000 and at the same time was to pass the word to his Chinese friend. 15:14.000 --> 15:18.000 It was late afternoon when he came back, and I'd become nearly as uneasy as Don Narciso. 15:18.000 --> 15:22.000 Yang Po came aboard alone and motioned me to follow him below, 15:22.000 --> 15:25.000 saying nothing until we were alone in my cabin. 15:25.000 --> 15:31.000 It is my humble opinion, Captain Harald, that Heaven favors us with their sighted lack of fortune. 15:31.000 --> 15:32.000 Why, what happened? 15:32.000 --> 15:35.000 Serif, most polite, I, most polite. 15:35.000 --> 15:39.000 We enjoyed most friendly conversation while we both held our knives beneath our robes. 15:39.000 --> 15:40.000 All very polite. 15:40.000 --> 15:42.000 Well, did you get word to your men? 15:42.000 --> 15:47.000 Serif blessed with presence of two hundred dikes and fifty melees. 15:47.000 --> 15:51.000 My own brethren are unfortunately down the coast for two days. 15:51.000 --> 15:53.000 Oh, that's a bad piece of luck. 15:53.000 --> 15:55.000 But I have news of much worse one. 15:55.000 --> 15:59.000 Jambu, that son of ten thousand devils, has deserted us. 15:59.000 --> 16:00.000 Deserted us? 16:00.000 --> 16:02.000 He has joined Serif. 16:02.000 --> 16:05.000 Oh, he'll tell them exactly what we're planning. 16:05.000 --> 16:07.000 Do not believe Jambu would do such a thing. 16:07.000 --> 16:09.000 Dolphina, I told you to stay out of this cabin. 16:09.000 --> 16:12.000 Jambu worships me. He's my slave wife. 16:12.000 --> 16:14.000 It was you who helped me sleep on board. 16:14.000 --> 16:16.000 Oh, so that's why he's done it. 16:16.000 --> 16:18.000 He has no desert. 16:18.000 --> 16:20.000 What could he hope to gain by it? 16:20.000 --> 16:21.000 You probably. 16:21.000 --> 16:27.000 This unworthy one offers suggestion that we stand out to sea until water which come tomorrow. 16:27.000 --> 16:29.000 A fine idea, except for one thing. 16:29.000 --> 16:32.000 Your sleepy little sons of Heaven left the cable slack. 16:32.000 --> 16:37.000 We're grounded on a mud bar with no chance of moving before the tide tomorrow morning. 16:37.000 --> 16:40.000 Well, we'll have to stand and fight. 16:40.000 --> 16:42.000 Ah, yes, they are so careless. 16:42.000 --> 16:47.000 I forgot to tell you, they even neglected to cover powder during storm. 16:47.000 --> 16:49.000 The water ruined it. 16:49.000 --> 16:51.000 Well, then we'll not even have the four cannons. 16:51.000 --> 16:53.000 Really a matter of slight importance. 16:53.000 --> 16:55.000 They're only ornaments. 16:55.000 --> 16:58.000 They would blow up if we fired them. 16:58.000 --> 17:02.000 You could hardly have picked a more suitable time to tell me. 17:02.000 --> 17:05.000 Well, we'll fight without them. 17:05.000 --> 17:08.000 The impetuosity of youth. 17:08.000 --> 17:13.000 I think I sleep for a while and dream of maidens on the moon. 17:13.000 --> 17:18.000 Yang Po, you'll stay on your feet and start your men boiling kettles of oil and piling rocks by the rail. 17:18.000 --> 17:21.000 It would be so much pleasanter to die in one sleep. 17:21.000 --> 17:25.000 If I know, Siriff, you'll not attack until nearly midnight. 17:25.000 --> 17:27.000 Telfina, can you swim? 17:27.000 --> 17:28.000 I can do anything. 17:28.000 --> 17:31.000 Primarily I want to know if you can swim. 17:31.000 --> 17:32.000 I can. 17:32.000 --> 17:33.000 Good. 17:33.000 --> 17:38.000 Yang Po, I'll be back and help you in an hour, but I have a job to do first. 17:38.000 --> 17:40.000 Come along, Kondesa. 17:40.000 --> 17:45.000 Ah! 17:45.000 --> 17:49.000 It was dark when we slipped into the water and struck out for the island. 17:49.000 --> 17:53.000 If I had tried to lower a boat, they might have seen us from the shore. 17:53.000 --> 17:56.000 I could see no other way to keep her out of it. 17:56.000 --> 17:58.000 The rest of us had no chance. 17:58.000 --> 18:01.000 I knew how the dikes fought. 18:01.000 --> 18:03.000 I could expect no help. 18:03.000 --> 18:07.000 And on board, she would have been the only one of us left alive. 18:07.000 --> 18:13.000 Aye, Jambu would see to that. 18:13.000 --> 18:19.000 We made the beach safely, crossed it, and worked our way up the steep path on the face of the cliff. 18:19.000 --> 18:22.000 Finally we reached the ledge in front of the caves. 18:22.000 --> 18:25.000 Oh, it is so dark here. 18:25.000 --> 18:27.000 It frightens me. 18:27.000 --> 18:28.000 Well, there's nothing to harm you. 18:28.000 --> 18:31.000 That's in the caves, perhaps, but nothing else. 18:31.000 --> 18:33.000 I am to stay here alone, then? 18:33.000 --> 18:36.000 Aye, until the water witch comes into anchor tomorrow. 18:36.000 --> 18:38.000 Light this torch, then, and signal them. 18:38.000 --> 18:40.000 They'll come ashore and take you off. 18:40.000 --> 18:42.000 Tomorrow? 18:42.000 --> 18:47.000 Where will you be tomorrow, Arit? 18:47.000 --> 18:49.000 You are going back there to die with him, aren't you? 18:49.000 --> 18:51.000 We'll have a fighting chance. 18:51.000 --> 18:53.000 You have no chance at all, and you know it. 18:53.000 --> 18:54.000 Don't go. 18:54.000 --> 18:55.000 Stay with me, Arit. 18:55.000 --> 18:56.000 You know that's impossible. 18:56.000 --> 19:03.000 No, this man, young poised, no better than a pirate himself, and you cannot help him by losing your own life, or stay with me. 19:03.000 --> 19:09.000 And what of your husband? 19:09.000 --> 19:11.000 Not go back. 19:11.000 --> 19:15.000 I beg you, please, Arit. 19:15.000 --> 19:21.000 Delphina, you have a deadlier poison than the Eupastrig itself. 19:21.000 --> 19:28.000 Will you force me then to stay here in safety and watch you die on those decks there below? 19:28.000 --> 19:33.000 Would it make so very much difference to you? 19:33.000 --> 19:38.000 So much that I would not care to be alive tomorrow. 19:38.000 --> 19:41.000 In Manila, I hated my life. 19:41.000 --> 19:46.000 I prayed for earthquakes, pirates, death, anything. 19:46.000 --> 19:51.000 But now I pray only that you may live through this night. 19:51.000 --> 19:56.000 Delphina, Delphina, I... 19:56.000 --> 20:01.000 There's nothing can be said. 20:01.000 --> 20:04.000 Leave them if you must. 20:04.000 --> 20:12.000 But before you do, kiss me. 20:12.000 --> 20:14.000 Delphina. 20:14.000 --> 20:18.000 Buenas noches, precioso. 20:18.000 --> 20:21.000 Adiosito. 20:21.000 --> 20:24.000 Adiosito. 20:24.000 --> 20:29.000 For a little while. 20:29.000 --> 20:40.000 Had I stayed there one moment longer, I should never have left her. 20:40.000 --> 20:47.000 Back aboard the junk, I found Yang Po rushing preparations for the hopeless fight that stood ahead of us. 20:47.000 --> 20:53.000 Don Narciso was shivering on the quarter deck, and I saw no reason to tell him his wife had made the trip with us. 20:53.000 --> 21:01.000 The Chinese crew had piled stones and smoke pots at the rail, ready to throw down on the heads of the diacs who had tried to board us, 21:01.000 --> 21:06.000 and kettles of oil were being heated over a brick hearth by the mast. 21:06.000 --> 21:13.000 Paper lanterns had been lighted and hung about the rigging, but outside the narrow limits of the deck we could see nothing. 21:13.000 --> 21:18.000 Nothing but the black wall of the Borneo night. 21:18.000 --> 21:26.000 That same dark wall shut off any sight of the upas tree, and so the cliff face where Delphina lay hidden. 21:26.000 --> 21:31.000 But I knew from the ledge she could see us moving about on the lighted deck. 21:31.000 --> 21:36.000 I loaded my pistols with the only dry powder aboard, and we waited. 21:36.000 --> 21:43.000 There was no light on shore, and no sound, and three hours went past. 21:43.000 --> 21:45.000 Ah! 21:50.000 --> 21:54.000 Signores, have all policy put in measures been taken? 21:54.000 --> 21:59.000 My venerable Captain General, I have offered incense and rice to Queen of Heaven. 21:59.000 --> 22:05.000 If our enemies prevail after that, then we have mistreated them in some form of life. 22:05.000 --> 22:07.000 I go below to sleep. 22:07.000 --> 22:10.000 Sleep? And who is to give orders to your men? 22:10.000 --> 22:15.000 They give them to one another, Excellency. They are all commanders in their own right. 22:15.000 --> 22:23.000 We may perhaps meet later in third or fourth heaven with powder, dry powder, and the grounded sheep. 22:23.000 --> 22:26.000 I might warn you before the attack starts, Your Excellency. 22:26.000 --> 22:30.000 Stay away from the rail, at least until after the smoke parts are thrown. 22:30.000 --> 22:40.000 The diacs use bamboo poles with iron hooks on the end, and they can reach up and drag a man over the rail easier than picking coconuts. 22:40.000 --> 22:47.000 Captain Arat, perhaps we could surrender, make peace somehow. 22:47.000 --> 22:49.000 We'll take no surrender. They want our heads. 22:49.000 --> 22:53.000 Look! They're on us! Young Poles, here they come! 22:53.000 --> 22:57.000 What's the rail, Your Excellency? Use your cutlery until the head comes over the side and look out for the hook! 22:57.000 --> 22:59.000 I'll be right there! 22:59.000 --> 23:06.000 There is dog warriors that run their boats in against the scythe through the junk, and now we're pushing them murderous hooks over the rail. 23:06.000 --> 23:15.000 The Chinese crew is fighting like madmen, tossing over smoke pots, smashing those heavy rocks down on the heads of the pirate mob, pouring out smoking kettles of boiling oil. 23:15.000 --> 23:21.000 And the whole curtain of night was torn by the screams of anger. 23:21.000 --> 23:27.000 Captain Arat, we find ourselves suddenly without smoke pots or soothing oil, and rocks are nearly caught. 23:27.000 --> 23:31.000 I'll be swarming aboard it in another two minutes. Where's the Captain General? 23:31.000 --> 23:36.000 He has retired to cabin. It would be unchartable to say he hides there. 23:36.000 --> 23:39.000 Well, a lot of good it'll do him. 23:39.000 --> 23:41.000 What happened? 23:41.000 --> 23:43.000 Young Poles! 23:43.000 --> 23:51.000 They're on the island, look! It would appear Tapa of Snickerdupas Tree has burst into flame. 23:51.000 --> 23:58.000 The great flaming torch of the tree spread into full bloom and leaped up to the heavens, lighting the whole sea around us. 23:58.000 --> 24:05.000 And everywhere about us, screaming in horsepower, the die have drew off in their boats and stared at the blazing death of their sacred tree. 24:05.000 --> 24:15.000 And then in full view on the glaring face of the cliff, the beautiful and weird figure of a woman, hair streaming behind it, swung slowly out from behind the flame, 24:15.000 --> 24:20.000 and up and up and then disappeared over the ledge in front of the cave. 24:20.000 --> 24:29.000 And at the sight of their white goddess escaping from her prison in the tree, the dikes broke in panic and turned their boats and raced for the shore. 24:29.000 --> 24:35.000 And while I thought of the signal torch I'd left with Delphina, suddenly the battle was over. 24:35.000 --> 24:41.000 Ten thousand bushels of unexpected good fortune. The little pair of kithars saved our worthless lives. 24:41.000 --> 24:42.000 Aye, then you recognize. 24:42.000 --> 24:50.000 Why, these vulnerable eyes have never looked upon sight more fair. I shall address her hereafter as Princess of Heaven. 24:50.000 --> 24:51.000 Never said that. 24:51.000 --> 24:55.000 And I think perhaps another recognized her also. 24:55.000 --> 25:00.000 But did you not see it? That was Delphina. It was my wife. 25:00.000 --> 25:03.000 I know. She was aboard with us. 25:03.000 --> 25:07.000 Aboard with us? By your permission, senor? 25:07.000 --> 25:11.000 No, she stowed away and asked that the knowledge of her presence be kept from you. 25:11.000 --> 25:16.000 I have no doubt she found you quite agreeable to such a plan. 25:16.000 --> 25:17.000 Take care, excellency. 25:17.000 --> 25:23.000 Take care? I will see your hands, senor. And as for her, I shall rip her through the streets of Vanilla. 25:23.000 --> 25:25.000 We will discuss that later. 25:25.000 --> 25:32.000 I do not discuss my decisions. In fact, it may be better that I be aboard at once and perhaps be there or dead on this very deck. 25:32.000 --> 25:33.000 You pardon me. 25:33.000 --> 25:38.000 It is my humble opinion that elderly men should learn to control their emotions. 25:38.000 --> 25:41.000 Wait, wait. There's a dyke warrior hiding there by the rail. 25:41.000 --> 25:43.000 The boats have gone and left him. 25:43.000 --> 25:45.000 Excellency! Excellency, away from that rail! 25:45.000 --> 25:47.000 I take no arms from you, senor! 25:47.000 --> 25:48.000 Get back! Look out! 25:48.000 --> 25:49.000 Silence, sodas! 25:49.000 --> 25:54.000 Very commendable shooting, Captain Aran. 25:54.000 --> 25:57.000 Aye, but a little used to the Captain General, I'm afraid. 25:57.000 --> 26:00.000 See what you can do from Yung Po. I'm going ashore to look after her. 26:00.000 --> 26:03.000 See what I can do for him. 26:03.000 --> 26:20.000 Now, how can I be expected to replace man's head on his body, especially when head seems to have rolled overboard? 26:20.000 --> 26:24.000 There's not the least bit of use in giving me a poet's blind, you old reprobate. 26:24.000 --> 26:30.000 It was nothing but pure luck that kept me from sailing in here this morning and finding nothing but your heads, all a-smoking in a row. 26:30.000 --> 26:35.000 Life moves only according to dreams of Queen of Heaven, Mr. O'Kane. 26:35.000 --> 26:39.000 Not to mention, of course, those of a princess. 26:39.000 --> 26:43.000 Oh, that Spanish lass, eh? And quite a one she's turned out to be. 26:43.000 --> 26:50.000 I plan to devote a reminder of my unworthy life to rescue our small burbs from nests. 26:50.000 --> 26:53.000 Now, that's a silly way for a grown man to spend his time. 26:53.000 --> 26:55.000 Oh, oh, come in, heiress. 26:55.000 --> 26:56.000 I've been wondering where to find you. 26:56.000 --> 26:58.000 I was charting the course. 26:58.000 --> 27:01.000 Well, we can sail in the morning. Both ships are nearly loaded. 27:01.000 --> 27:03.000 Good, we'll head for Canton. 27:03.000 --> 27:11.000 Uh, young Poe, this friend of yours there, this Encore, do you think he might have some good quality of silk to trade? 27:11.000 --> 27:12.000 I think it's possible. 27:12.000 --> 27:17.000 Ah, silk is it now. And what would you be wanting silk for, eh, Rad? 27:17.000 --> 27:22.000 Well, uh, well, it's not silk. I, I, I mean, not exactly. 27:22.000 --> 27:24.000 Come, man, come, man. It's what, what? 27:24.000 --> 27:27.000 If it's not silk, eh, Rad, then what is it, huh? 27:27.000 --> 27:31.000 Oh, all right, Michael, if you have to know everything. 27:31.000 --> 27:36.000 I want to trade with them for, for a dozen pair of silk stockings. 27:36.000 --> 27:48.000 ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] 27:48.000 --> 27:51.000 Escape is produced and directed by William N. Robeson, 27:51.000 --> 27:55.000 and tonight brought to you Misfortune's Isle by Richard Matthews Hellett, 27:55.000 --> 28:00.000 adapted for radio by Les Crutchfield, with Paul Fries as Captain Arad, 28:00.000 --> 28:04.000 Virginia Gregg as Donya Delphina, Bill Conrad as Young Poe, 28:04.000 --> 28:09.000 Barry Kroger as Don Narciso, and Tony Barrett as Mike O'Kane. 28:09.000 --> 28:11.000 ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] 28:11.000 --> 28:17.000 Next week, when you're tired out from doing nothing all weekend, 28:17.000 --> 28:20.000 when Blue Monday stares you in the face, 28:20.000 --> 28:25.000 next week at this time when your problems seem just too much for you, 28:25.000 --> 28:28.000 we offer you Escape. 28:28.000 --> 28:39.000 ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] 28:39.000 --> 28:44.000 Next week we bring you another exciting story by one of the world's great authors. 28:44.000 --> 28:47.000 Good night then, until the same time next week, 28:47.000 --> 28:51.000 when once again we offer you Escape. 28:51.000 --> 29:01.000 ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] 29:01.000 --> 29:05.000 This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System. 29:05.000 --> 29:21.000 ["The Star-Spangled Banner"]